It's Terrible! It's So Disappointing! No: It's Politics. And It's Very Useful.

Facebook is reeling under the strain. The Democrats are shouting at each other! They're sounding like....him!

As a late education professor at my college used to say to just about every philosophical issue: Well, yes. And no.

How short are our memories, anyhow? 2016 wasn't that long ago. And the Democratic presidential candidates have learned a few things just by watching. They're being played out on various stages, the most recent of which was last night in Charleston.

They understand full well, for instance, that whoever gets the opportunity to take on the Republican monster will need to deal with chaos. He's incredibly good at distracting attention and keeping us from focusing on anything because everything has become such a mess.

So the relatively (!) chaotic scene that the last two debates have displayed aren't a bad thing. In a sense, they're good, because whoever steps onto that stage with 45 will be treated to attack after attack, falsehood after falsehood, exaggeration after exaggeration, now at such a rate that it literally will be impossible to answer all of them or even keep up with all of them in whatever time-frame in which answers/reponses will be allowed in the debate format.

And if anyone recalls, the problem that most if not all of 45's Republican competitors faced from him four years ago was the shock factor from absorbing ridiculous statement after ridiculous statement, and being unable to put him in whatever place he deserved. Because it's nearly impossible, in the short run, to deal with anyone who understands not shame--because he has no sense of it--but only consequences. And with his minions providing him backing that consistently improved because he told them exactly what they wanted him to hear, consequences were few if any.

Besides, 45 wasn't about to give anyone the convenient bromides they'd been hearing for decades. He was giving them entertainment value along with grab-bag, radical policy initiatives based on a complete lack of understanding about governance that, as has been proven, have yet to be fleshed out. To his core issue, the one that represents red meat to the faithful: Not one new mile of the border wall has been built. People are still getting into our country by the thousands.

The increasing restrictions upon refugees are cruel and despicable. The only thing he's been able to do is keep immigrant kids from seeing their parents, a specter that quite honestly I'm amazed that the Democrats haven't continuously managed to exploit during each and every single debate.

Staying on point will be the first challenge. The present-day debates are giving us a chance to see who's best at it.

The second will be the ability to become as assertive in responding to what will be 45's personal insults and innuendoes, which will again come from an unscripted, seat-of-the-pants place that absolutely no one can possibly anticipate. It will be nearly impossible to prepare for such contingencies, since 45 himself won't even know when he'll spew them. Efforts to script him have nearly always fallen short, and is part of his appeal, which has never gone below 35 percent. I'm quite sure he has absolutely no reason to change his behavior because none has ever presented itself to him.

And I don't recall any single of 45's Republican opponents saying this single phrase with accompanying explanations four years ago: You're one to talk. That was partly because 45 had no previous political record and was as flaky as a box of Wheaties when it came to background; the other was, again, the breaking of the political cultural norm of staying away from certain undiscussibles on the debate stage, saving those for well-planted earned media, campaign ads or the buzz surrounding internet journalism.

Nobody knew what to do with yeah-so-what attitude, the brazenness not only of Planet Hollywood but the refusal of the minions to walk away from him. Now that Republicans in Congress have been found to support such thinking, a new kind of response is necessary--a far more basic kind of comment: That's not what a president should be doing. What should be obvious must now be stated unequivocally rather than keeping thoughts in the back of one's head like: I can't believe he doesn't get that. 

It is happening, though. He is saying such things. They do have to stop and the Democratic opponent must adequately explain why.

The Democratic candidate has to be prepared to become really, really basic in pointing such things out; really, really matter-of-fact but quick on one's feet in remembering all the awful things he's said and done; and really ready to skewer him with fierce commentary when the time's right. That's a tall order.

So consider this as a kind of showdown practice to demonstrate the readiness of these competitors to face the ultimate charlatan, the mountebank of Mar-A-Lago. Because that's what he is. Facing him and holding one's own, regardless of his incompetence and cruelty, will make a winner quite the formidable person to deal with his- or herself. With existential threats all over the place, creating a different kind of strength out of this process is probably what's exactly needed.

Politics isn't an ice cream social. They're messy and bruising, even more so as one moves up the line. Those that aren't toughened by the experience are the ones who step aside. Watching that might be repelling, but it might also build confidence that, at this pivotal moment, we might be able to stop the leaking of this Ship of State's oil, do some badly-needed repairs, and sail on, sadder but wiser. At least then we'll be moving forward, neither backwards into an abandoned past of someone's imagination, nor reeling ahead within a phony construction of lies and innuendoes.

Be well. Be careful. I'll see you down the road.


Mister Mark